Apparently Yale University, the 300-year-old school that is already one of the most selective colleges in the United States of America, needs more applicants. And not just normal applicants. Oh no, it’s not enough that the school’s alumni already include luminaries as diverse as Harold Bloom, William F. Buckley, Jonathan Edwards, and Jodie Foster. Yale wants applicants who are fans of High School Musical. And so the admissions department has produced this charming video:

Yale admissions dean Jeffrey Brenzel said that the video is “a campy musical extravaganza that also manages to convey the real spirit of the students and the place.” Everyone in the video attends or graduated from Yale.

Well okay. But maybe the video doesn’t exactly convey the “real spirit of the place” in the most positive or, well, appropriate manner. As IvyGate blog explained:

The Yale Daily News says that of 60 students attending a premiere Thursday night, 13 had “overwhelmingly positive responses.” I assume the other 47 were unavailable for comment, having strangled themselves with a belt, slit their wrist with the broken shards of an iPod Touch, or otherwise acted out the first scene from “The Happening.”

What’s with colleges and these creepy videos? Is this a trend? It’s a very awkward trend.

Daniel Luzer
is the news editor at Governing Magazine and former web editor of the Washington Monthly. Find him on Twitter: @Daniel_Luzer

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